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Rossi regrets late-race “mistake” in Lorenzo duel

Valentino Rossi admits his late-race mistake while attacking Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo cost him second place in the Aragon MotoGP round.

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

Rossi – who led the middle stages of the race – was re-attacking Lorenzo for second with two laps remaining when he overestimated his bike’s capability in an outbraking move and sailed across the run-off.

This allowed Lorenzo to escape for second, and meant Rossi lost vital extra points to series leader Marc Marquez, who won the race.

“It’s a shame for the mistake, [with] two laps to go,” said Rossi, who now lies 52 points adrift of Marquez in the standings. “We can fight on the last lap for second place with Lorenzo, but I did a mistake.

“We tried to work, make a setting to save a bit the tyre for the second half of the race, but unfortunately it didn’t work enough, I was a bit in trouble, and also Jorge beat me because at the end he was faster.

“Anyway, the podium is good, I lost four points to Jorge but we are more or less there. It was a solid weekend, we worked well, we tried something different but unfortunately it didn’t work.”

Rear spinning holding back Yamaha

Rossi, who started from the second row, said he had no answer to Marquez’s pace – and cited the grip level from his rear tyre as the reason.

“The front [tyre] of Marquez compared to mine was not very different,” he said. “About the rear, we suffer.

“The Yamaha, we spin a bit more and we stress the tyre, but anyway we put two bikes on the podium, without the mistake I would arrived less than three seconds [behind] Marquez."

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